LeBron Has Struck Out !

It’s really hard to discuss the Mets these days at a time when all the press and prose is given to LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki, the hated Miami Heat and the hard-working darlings of Dallas. What a reality show these NBA Finals have been! (It was the right time for an exclamation point).

It’s really laughable. James is just getting smeared all over the place for not being some kind of Superman in this Series. He was only mortal, some would say way too mortal. He didn’t take over games in the fourth quarter. He didn’t win the Championship for which he left Cleveland . His bravado, his cavalier attitude, his all too public reveling in his own persona turned out to be unjustified.

No team ever deserved to lose more than the evil Miami team, the brain-trust that concocted their grand scheme for a title and the stars who pranced about on national TV to announce James’s final decision to forsake the utterly forsake-able city of his home town Cleveland.

The Heat lost. James lost. Wade lost. Bosh lost. Life is good, very good.

What’s maybe most compelling to me in following this maniacal coverage centers around the word schadenfreude, a word I had really never seen before but appeared in at least two different columns. It means the taking of joy from someone else’s failures.

And it’s true. Not since the Yanks lost four straight to the Red Sox have I or this nation derived so much giddiness from the failure of others. Never has there been such universal glee over a team’s demise and the failure of its self-proclaimed superstar.

And no person ever deserved it more. No team ever deserved it more. So it’s okay to pile on. These people deserve it, slick Pat Riley, smug Dwayne Wade and the arrogant LeBron James.

The best part of this whole thing is that America didn’t see this coming, I didn’t see this coming and, best of all, the Heat themselves didn’t see it coming. They were too good. They were too smart, too strong and just too tough. No team could take them in the clutch. When push came to shove, in their minds it would be the Miami Heat who would prevail. And they weren’t bashful about it, no no, not at all, precious.

On the other side of things is the perfect counterfoil, if that’s the word….a really good basketball team, a group of individuals with a lot of talent, a lot of experience and a lot of character, a team that knew how good they were, a coach who knew how to use all his talent and even a practically crazed owner who just shut up his incredibly big mouth for practically the entire season. He didn’t want to jinx them. How great is that?

In short, no team ever deserved to win more than this Mavericks team. Yeah, they had their superstar too but he had never won anything before, he was too soft, he was a European, he was just a shooter who wasn’t even that when the clock was ticking down in a big game.

But that European gave away some of his own money so that owner Cuban could acquire two perfect role-players that would make them even tougher, one Brian Cardinal and an even less notable Ian Mahinmi, a big body, from France no less. But even raw 6’11 guys get noticed and tough 6’8 guys with experience can be a real pain in the behind.

And then there was Jason Kidd, the good old guy with all the smarts on the court, in his prime a real triple-double guy who played good defense too, a real winner who never really won anything unless you count nonsense like the Olympics.

Yeah, Nowitzki and Kidd were the names everybody knew but an old fantasy player like myself knew and took note of some of these other Mavs players even before the season started, starting with Jason Terry, who was just great all year but who still hadn’t been touted much outside of Dallas, but also including Shawn Marion, who had always been one of the better all-around forwards in the league.

I had both these players on my winning fantasy squad and they were two real values. Another player I would have liked was center Tyson Chandler, always under-rated as he’s one of those guys who always played much better than his stat-line would indicate.

So I took notice of this Dallas team early on in the season but still was surprised that they beat the Lakers. I thought the Mavs were too small to take the Lakers. And I wouldn’t have put money down that they’d ever beat the Heat.

Hadn’t the NBA always rewarded the star system? Hadn’t the existence of 2 superstars on the same team always practically guaranteed success? Think Jordan and Pippen, think Magic and Kareem , think Kobe and Shaq (who beat Kidd in 2003). Wasn’t it pretty much a lock that the stars would be rewarded again? Hadn’t the Heat just beaten the 3-starred Celtics of Pierce, Garnett and Allen?

After Game 3, when the Heat recaptured their home court advantage, I thought the Mavs might be done. I expected the Heat to win each successive contest. The Mavs win in Game 4 was a relief but their backs were against the wall. Their always fateful Game 5 win was a joy but even then, I thought they had to go back to Miami and could easily lose two there.

I told myself the Mavs had to win Game 6, a Game 7 in Miami would be just impossible. But they did indeed take Game 6. Once again, it was the Jason Terry show while LeBron seemed to disappear. Wade was great throughout.

LeBron was not. He couldn’t drive to the basket. He couldn’t shoot. He found out there are missing elements to his game. And brand.

And that’s best of all.

Hope for the Future

Okay, so I tried something new, using a pen and paper instead of a PC. What I wound up with was 1000 words or so on paper. Then I went to sleep. Now it’s two days later and, even if I wanted to transcribe it, if I could read it, it’s old news now, or, even worse, commentary on old news.

So let’s try again. The Mets still win a couple, lose a couple. LeBron James is still damned if he does and if he doesn’t, the Yanks are still second best, well, maybe third best now, and some nag will undoubtedly win the Belmont Stakes this Saturday.

That Mets game last night was really fun to watch. It had everything, some good pitching, some good hitting and lots and lots of highs and lows.

Mike Pelfrey is cursed. Either he’ll lose the game all by himself or he’ll get help. Last night he got help. The usual suspects provided the help, Reyes and Beltran, Pagan and Paulino to name a few. But, after taking a nice lead, their relievers lost it for them anyway.

I don’t like the way Collins handles pitchers. He either inserts a new pitcher before the one on the mound gets in trouble or he stays with a pitcher clearly in trouble much too long. He thinks it’s character building. I think it’s just stupid.

Last night Pelfrey pitched a gem for six innings. That’s all the opportunity he got. Collins decided it was time for some of the worst relievers in the game to finish it for him. And oh, they finished it all right. The first reliever called upon, the lefty “specialist” Byrdak promptly walked the first batter, Prince Fielder, and got yanked.

Then Parnell managed to pitch his way through the seventh without too much incident, setting the stage for the Mets big inning in the eighth. But, rather than let Parnell continue, Collins brought in Pedro Beato, who had pitched the day before. And it showed. He had nothing, no fastball, no slider, no fight. He just quit. He figuratively said, “You don’t pitch me two days in a row”.

Beato promptly walked the forty-year old Counsell. Right at that point I would have pulled his butt. But not Collins, he wanted to see Beato build character. Beato did manage to get a ground ball out of Rickie Weeks though, a ball that could have been a double-play with a better infield. That minor gaffe was enough to rattle Beato, who then gave up a single to Morgan and a double to Braun, scoring two. Only then did Collins go to Isringhausen, who wasted no time at all in letting Prince Fielder tie the game with a humongous home run to straight-away center.

I chalk last night’s loss up to Collins. Instead of going with the hot hand, he goes with the cold one. And it’s not the first time. Instead of pulling closer to that magic .500 mark, the Mets lost one that should have been in the bag.

Everybody thinks the Mets relative success this year is solely due to Collins. What a joke! Whatever success they’ve had is due to some good players, players who were unproven but good nevertheless. Turner, Pridie, Thole, Tejada, these young players are tough. And the starting pitching has been good too.

While it could be that Collins is one of the reasons they’re playing so well, that’s not really a lock. And I’m willing to give Collins the benefit of the doubt in that regard but he’s bad with pitchers. He needs to get better.

The Mets need some power and some help in the relief corps, starting with a lefty who knows how to pitch. Every time I see Byrdak, I think “here we go”. As the Mets won’t be spending any money in the near future, the Mets have to use their existing assets to get better in the long run.

But they can get a power hitter and a reliever or two without getting rid of Reyes. Reyes is a large piece of the Mets very identity. Although his value is undoubtedly the highest it will ever be right now, the Mets should not make a deal until it’s proven they can’t re-sign him and that the return for him is significant, meaning multiple high-quality prospects.

Wilpon’s unfortunate comments certainly point to the Mets not re-signing him. But just as the Yankees overpaid by nearly double Jeter’s actual worth to re-sign him, so the Mets should regard Jose Reyes. He’s the straw that stirs the drink, not Wright or Santana or Beltran. The team should be willing to pay some premium to keep him in a Mets uniform.

Only if re-signing him is virtually impossible should the Mets deal him. If they must deal him, they must get value. Beltran and K-Rod should also draw some suitors this year from any number of contending teams. They can fully expect to get some power and relief pitching in return.

All of which means there is hope for a better Mets team in the future, one probably featuring pitching and defense rather than power, although some power would be nice. It certainly appears at this juncture that power will not be forthcoming from either Jason Bay or David Wright.

Jason Bay is holding the bat too tightly. He’s got to loosen up that grip and just whip that bat around. His stance is actually better than it was last year when he led with his elbows. He’s just got to relax. He has to swing at the first hittable pitch too rather than taking a strike. Until he shakes this slump, he should forget about having “good” at-bats. He’s got to break out, and not necessarily with home runs.

Meanwhile, NBA fans will see the real LeBron tonight. Baskets? …..he’ll make them. Rebounds?....he’ll get them. Assists?....maybe not so many but some timely ones to his partners named Wade and Chris Bosh.